Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-01-22
A HAPPY OCCASION.
London World.

London World.
.Do not come too late" That was the
wording OF the telegram which Captain
Richard Irton held in his hand as he sat
in temperature of log degrees in the
shade, on the veranda of his Indian bun.
gslow.
aDo not come too late?" he muttered
to himself. By Jove, as If it were prob
able that he would dawdle nowl 1t wsf
lust like Mrs. Lepnox to send such q
chatting wire as this. He might have
been a long time making up his mind
but it was made up now, and he meant
to 20 home and marry her. 1t was he,
last letter that had settled the matter
the letter in which she binted that Lord
Shorthorn was awfully mashed" No
he wasn't going to stand by and see Dor
othy Lennon married to q cad like
Shorthorn. He had been the whole
year, he reminded himself, in this infer
nal station, with its furnace heat, itf
inane gossip, and its eternal tennis and
polo. How he loathed the very sight oil
his Majors wife, with her white eye
lashes, her malicious giggle and her
flirting manners!
And then he thought of Mrs. Lennox.
He remembered the first night he bad
met her in the ball room of a great
house in London-apd how he had seen
her surrounded by dozen other fellows,
and how he had "made the running"
and had cut out all those outsiders. And
he recollected the call he had paid next
day at her tiny house in Park street,
when she had been so sweet and grace
full, and had talked to him as no woman
had ever talked before. He didn't go in
for brains or any Of that rot, but, by
Jovel Dorothy Lennox made him
feel another fellow. He thought of the
cool, amber-tinted room where she al
ways sat, with its dropping palms, it's
masses of azaleas, its Rs jan etchings,
and it's blue and-white Nankin. It was
always cool and cosey in Mrs. Lennox's
house and she had way of taking fell
lows hand and looking him seriously in
the eyes which was quite irresistible. He
remembered how it had become almost
habit to drop in of sn afternoon, to
lounge on her soft divan, and listen to
her half chatting talk and her low delic-
ious laugh. And when a woman is
deuced good-looking as well as clever,
why, what is a fellow to do? Perhaps it
was wrong to make love in quite such q
serious way as he did, but hang It'll she
wasn't kitten, aud she might have
known he wasn't the marrying sort.
All that was a year ago, but he hadn't
forgotten her bit-worse luck. And
her letters-how swfully nice they were!
how like herself! Not spoony, like those
he wrote TO her, but frank, humorous
and thoroughly bon camarade. Hang
it all! it was much easier to keep heart
whole in London than in this sultry and
hole. He had managed to
evade compromising himself definitely
even when he had gone to bid Mrs. Len
nox good-by, although he had been
near proposing to her that
last evening; but he had got away, and
nothing had been said which would have
ned him down to an engagement.
Dick, in his rowing life, had committed |
every folly except that which he copsid-
,red the hugest folly of all-the folly of
ying yourself to one woman for life.
he remembered how he had congratu-
ated himself on all this when he went
n board the Jumma. Was he, the best
ookipg fellow and the keenest sports
nan in the One Hundred and Fiftieth
1uzzars, to knock under like any spoony
'oung sub, the moment he met pretty
Bnt now things were changed
lie had never bargained, somehow, fer
Ter marrying again; he had got to look
lpon her more or less as his own. When
he had written that letter with all the
Illusions to Shorthorn in it, his blood
ad fairly boiled. He didn't regret a
it the letter he had written in reply,
cling her he was leaving India the very
ay he could get leave. and asking her
D be his wife. After all, why shouldn't
q marry? He was over 30, and he had
sd, as he remembered with smile, his
fling" The other fellows in his regi-
lent used to chaff him and call him
and said that he never did to-
By what he could put off till tomorrow.
mt that was all nonsense. He could
lake up his mind like other men, even
matrimony. And her answer to his
tier: "Do not come too late" Well,
, had got his leave, and would be with
Or in three weeks.
Mrs. Lennon was the sort of woman
bout whom peoples tongues are always i
agging. Hardly was her late husband
orne beneathnodding plumes to Kensel
freen than she was married, in perspec-
We, to a dozen admirers. She was q !,
reat success in society, for beside being j
charming woman she was fashionable !
oetess, writing words for Tosti's songs, ,
nd publishing small volumes of verse, ,
ound in white parchment, and printed j
a extra thick paper. Tall and slight, ;
18th smooth dark hair and liquid eyes,
be had face full Of character and de- +,
animation. To look at Mrs. Lennon .
as to know that she was q woman who ;